Law on 2013 national budget sent to president for signature

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has sent for signature by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych the law on the national budget of Ukraine for 2013.

The document was sent to the president on December 10, reads a posting on the parliament's Web site on Monday.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada passed the draft national budget of Ukraine for 2013 after adding to the document minor amendments proposed by the budget committee, and passed unchanged the main indices in the document.

Some 242 of the 351 MPs registered in the session hall supported this decision.

According to the proposals of the parliament's budget committee, some Hr 1.9 billion of the expenditures of the general fund of the state budget were rearranged, while the revenues and expenditures of the special fund were raised by Hr 1.42 billion.

The draft budget for 2013 submitted by the government, envisaged revenues in 2013 at Hr 361.51 billion, which is 3% less than the indicator set for 2012, while the expenditures forecast in the budget for 2013 were reduced by 1%, to Hr 410.661 billion. The revenues of the general fund were estimated at Hr 315.22 billion, and expenses at Hr 363.65 billion.

The document also foresaw that excess of loans (Hr 13.38 billion) from the national budget on their return (Hr 12.1 billion) will amount to Hr 1.28 billion.

The deficit of the 2013 national budget was approved at the level of Hr 50.43 billion (3.2% of forecast GDP), which is 30% more than the target set for 2012.